[mbabbit]

1972 speedway. way ahead of there time. i had a sweet 292 wish i never gave it away, tore the track out of it gave it to my buddies dad

 

[jet]

1985 or 1986 issue of Snow Goer magazine shoot out's top speed went to V-max540 at somewhere between 94-96mph, Indy600 took second place at 93.something, and ski-doo?? The owner of indy was whining saying he could break 100mph mark with his hyfax lubers hooked up and functioning

Test crew stated to him that the sleds were to be "stock trim" no lubers, pipes, clutch kits, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc,, case closed

Yams' advantage in stock trim legalities of rules was, in production (un-like a lot of Phazers, Lol)they used idler wheels that were slightly larger than in past and actually took <strike>some</strike> a lot of the weight off of their hyfax, thereby less friction, higher speeds,, over the yrs, a "stock" Indy600 triple (no mods what so ever, just studding) will really amaze many as to how slow they were in stock shootout guidelines form, even though many thought they were flying

A trail ported, triple piped, bored and re-jetted carbs, clutches cut for overdrive then clutched to a T with modified gold diggers for traction Indy600, would only pull between 101.7-103 on glare ice with full shift out over a 1/2 mile run

Keep doubtin' though,,, Far too many believe in dream-o-meters AND older X and K band radars, (older "X" in particular) that lose a lot of their accuracy due to the sonics coming off exhaust pulse waves as sleds approached guns, Ka band radar wasn't available back that far (neither was laser)[/b]

I tell ya see ya c-note, I just loved those big sleds from 85-86 and still do!!! they really had everybody going during those years.. they Knew how to promote the sport back then. I idolized those sleds!! what did the el'tigre' run?? and the doo? I think the big doo back then was the formula plus right??

just so the younger ones know, the yammie that year was a twin and so was the doo and the cat, the indy 600 was a tripple..

the indy 600 was bad ass if you made the right mods too it!!! it would run fast in a 1,000 feet!!

 

[C-notesnopro]

Trev, if memory serves me right, no el'tigre was run in that shootout, just the yam, pol and doo and the doo was a decent margin behind the other two (all things considered)

Wish I still had that issue, was funnier than heck reading about the pol guy pissing his pants outta' frustration because they would not let him run lubers :lol:

 

[jet]

Trev, if memory serves me right, no el'tigre was run in that shootout, just the yam, pol and doo and the doo was a decent margin behind the other two (all things considered)

Wish I still had that issue, was funnier than heck reading about the pol guy pissing his pants outta' frustration because they would not let him run lubers :lol:[/b]

I probably got the issue buried somewhere in my collection!!lol

I'll have to look sometime!!

 

[C-notesnopro]

If you do, copy me off the article and results, pm me and i'll give my address,, Thanks :beer_cheers:

 

[Highmarkxt800]

My Dad has a '80 Kawaski Invader 340 L/C bought brand new(still has it), it was fast for a 340 L/C. I had heard that the 440's were hitting around 90mph which was and is still fast. That 340 was a 75mph sled on good hard pack. Not sure what the one and only year 1984 Kawasaki 550 would hit, but i heard it was fast.[/b]

Kawasaki never made a full production run in 83 so it could not have been a 84.

My '82 Kawasaki 550 Interceptor ran 98-99 mph on a 2000 ft ice radar race in the winter of '83. Could not break the 100 mph barrier though........ :dohdoh: Mine was all stock with some steel ice picks for traction. If I had some taller gearing I think I could have done it.

That same race a couple of '83 Polaris Indy 600's were turning 101-102 mph....supposedly stock with ice picks and geared higher/steeper. Those Indy's were the 1st sleds I witnessed to break the 100 mph barrier.

JMY[/b]

Intercpeters were a fast sled. Twin piped 550 with over 90 HP and pretty light. My father had a couple of them including one of the 83 demo's like the one in this picture.

 

[ready2race]

No, 76 was the first production year liquid cooled, not 1980.

Dont know what the first sled that would go 100 is but the first production(well race production)sled to hit 100 mph in a 1000' is a 77 srx. No other sled before that time did that without extensive mods. That sled to this day is still bad ass...no wonder why every sanctioned racing organization has banned them from racing because no 440 sleds to date can compete...well I guess a newer sno pro could but probably not box stock.[/b]

Well, I run a 77 SRX yesterday at the vintage races for the owner,, compleatly stock, Everything,, They will still give you a good ride,, impressive sled,, I agree from what Ive seen this sled could easily hit the C-note in a longer distance,, back in it's day it would put down a 650 indy in a 750FT race,, By the way,, took 3 classes with it yesterday,, surpose to storm here today so I don't know it there will be races,, hope it holds off>>>>R2R

 

[JMY]

Intercpeters were a fast sled. Twin piped 550 with over 90 HP and pretty light. My father had a couple of them including one of the 83 demo's like the one in this picture.[/b]

Yes....fast & quick. Back in those days I worked for a local Arctic Cat dealer as a mechanic. I set up many carry over '81 El Tigre 6000's that winter....new ones out of the crate my dealer bought from other dealers that quit/gotten out of the business. My 550 Interceptor was the "measuring stick" for all the 6000's that season. My friend Charlie....who also was a mechanic at this dealership....and I would race each new 6000 against my Interceptor. The Interceptor had a wicked hole shot due to a really sweet weight transfering rear suspension and a 5000 rpm clutch engagement. My sled only lost once the entire season. Of course we'd never tell that to our customers. :biggrin:

JMY

P. S. Thanks for sharing the photo and article about the demise of the Interceptor. Did your father work for Kawasaki?

 

[Highmarkxt800]

Yes....fast & quick. Back in those days I worked for a local Arctic Cat dealer as a mechanic. I set up many carry over '81 El Tigre 6000's that winter....new ones out of the crate my dealer bought from other dealers that quit/gotten out of the business. My 550 Interceptor was the "measuring stick" for all the 6000's that season. My friend Charlie....who also was a mechanic at this dealership....and I would race each new 6000 against my Interceptor. The Interceptor had a wicked hole shot due to a really sweet weight transfering rear suspension and a 5000 rpm clutch engagement. My sled only lost once the entire season. Of course we'd never tell that to our customers. :biggrin:

JMY

P. S. Thanks for sharing the photo and article about the demise of the Interceptor. Did your father work for Kawasaki?[/b]

No but our company bought a lot of engines (for 3 wheelers) from Kawasaki and that is how he got hooked up with the 83 demo. We got a lot of pics and interesting stories about the Kaw's including one where he did some climbing at Togwotee against Al Unser Sr. on Polaris that he had a Turbo on in the spring of 84. His 82 was actually faster than his 83. The old man was an expert at clutching, he invented the first 3 wheeler in the US with a torque converter. He never got into sanctioned racing but I NEVER seen or heard of him getting beat back in the 70's or 80's when back yard racing up in northern Wi/UP.

 

[phazernut]

Back in the early 80's a couple of us took a AC Panther 440 engine and shoe-horned it into a 12Elan. Not sure if it broke 100MPH but it felt like 200. What a ride that was.

well, i highly doubt any 440 was running over 100mph. oh sure, maybe it said it on the speedo but i highly doubt the sled was going that fast. even highly modified versions are lucky to see that in real world conditions. i don't know how many bullshit stories i've heard about guys running across a field at 100mph on their 440 el tigre or srx. yeah maybe the speedo was very optimistic but i highly doubt you could even hang onto to the sled under those conditions. and there was only unreliable ways to accurately measure those stories anyways. it's not like they had gps.[/b]

 

[ready2race]

Back in the early 80's a couple of us took a AC Panther 440 engine and shoe-horned it into a 12Elan. Not sure if it broke 100MPH but it felt like 200. What a ride that was.[/b]

With no suspension, those old things were a hand full and felt alot faster....R2R

 

[indytriple]

Ok all good guesses but the first snowmobile to break the true 100 MPH was the 1985 600 indy tripple it ran 104 on radar :ylsuper:[/b]

My old 89 indy 650 stock jets, pipe, secondary, gears, just a different primary spring, studs and plastic ski's has radar'd 101mph on a couple ocassions. Can't think of any consumers sleds released before the 88 650 that could have carried more top end.

 

[polarisbum]

The 1st STOCK sled that was available to all consumers, to hit 100 MPH out of the box, was the 1979 Poalris 500 Centurion triple.

Also note, that's real radar speed. Forget the speedo's on the sleds at the time. It was common knowledge that the manufacturers would put a 10-15% fudge factor in them. Heck Yamaha still pumps them up 12%.

 

[toocheaptosmoke]

The 1st STOCK sled that was available to all consumers, to hit 100 MPH out of the box, was the 1979 Poalris 500 Centurion triple.

Also note, that's real radar speed. Forget the speedo's on the sleds at the time. It was common knowledge that the manufacturers would put a 10-15% fudge factor in them. Heck Yamaha still pumps them up 12%.[/b]

I've heard the pre-production centurions were breaking 100, but supposedly had 38mm carbs and were tuned a bit hotter. Would love to see some real numbers from a stock leafer centurion to see how close they came though.

 

[gpxsrxracer]

76 liquid cooled SRX????????.......Like to see a picture.[/b]

go to yamaha motors site...hit the snowmobile epic tab and see the 76 srx 440 liquid there...or do a google immage search...see alot of them on there

 

[C-notesnopro]

:coffee-n-news:

 

[gpxsrxracer]

:coffee-n-news:[/b]

Whatzup Rusty??? One of these days we will do dinner...hopefully sooner than later.

 

[gpxsrxracer]

A little misleading here.
All sleds 15 years and older are banned from stock racing at sanctioned events. Put a mod SRX against other modded 440's and in my experience the SRX loses. Rotax 440's have the most potential followed by Merc.

We've had a few SRX's, '76 mod, '77 (motor only, we blew it up bad), and 2 '80 pro-stockers. They didn't seem to gain a whole lot with the mods. My 'El Tigres were quite a bit faster. COSDRA allowed a '78 SRX to run a few years back in the stock class and it was a little over 1/2 a second slower than the new competition. The new sleds 60' too well.[/b]

Misleading, not really...maybe I needed to clarify more thats all. You mentioned all sleds 15 years and older...that is key. Reality is the srx's, twisters, z's and rotary ski-doos were beating up on all the newer stuff in the 80s and most of the 90's. Its easy to understand why, power to weight. Look at your F7 you have as your avatar...need I say more? Thats why they banned the old sleds. Even out horsepowered over newer sleds, hard to compete when you sled weighs 300-350 pounds or just under 400 then race against the boat anchors of the 80's and 90's pushing the 500-600 pound ranges.

The 77's were best for srx's, lightest and most horsepower and not much of anything was needed besides tuning and clutching for them to win...unless you had a great port job not much more can be done to get more than 100 h.p. out of a 77. I know a few guys claim they can get 120 out of a srx...I'd like to see that on a reputable dyno like Gallaways. Hard to get 22 extra h.p. out of a already fully modded for the most part engine. Now if we are talking Rotary 440 Rotax, yes, very possible.

 

[ready2race]

Misleading, not really...maybe I needed to clarify more thats all. You mentioned all sleds 15 years and older...that is key. Reality is the srx's, twisters, z's and rotary ski-doos were beating up on all the newer stuff in the 80s and most of the 90's. Its easy to understand why, power to weight. Look at your F7 you have as your avatar...need I say more? Thats why they banned the old sleds. Even out horsepowered over newer sleds, hard to compete when you sled weighs 300-350 pounds or just under 400 then race against the boat anchors of the 80's and 90's pushing the 500-600 pound ranges.

The 77's were best for srx's, lightest and most horsepower and not much of anything was needed besides tuning and clutching for them to win...unless you had a great port job not much more can be done to get more than 100 h.p. out of a 77. I know a few guys claim they can get 120 out of a srx...I'd like to see that on a reputable dyno like Gallaways. Hard to get 22 extra h.p. out of a already fully modded for the most part engine. Now if we are talking Rotary 440 Rotax, yes, very possible.[/b]

I also agree,, The 77 I run on the weekend is factory stock ,,pretty hard to improve on,, the weight between the 77 and 78 SRX is very noticable,,(so is the power)I helped load a 78(Guys brother that owns the 77) and could not beleive the weight diff in just one year and they got heavier after that,, 350lbs and mid 90hp,, not much wonder the newer stuff couldn't compete,, also run a 500 centurian and took it by 6-7 lengths but it might not have been the same sled as shown earlier,, B machine, not classed with the 77....R2R